Managing portfolios of Co-creation projects in the public sector organization

Abstract

While co-creation is becoming increasingly popular among public sector institutions to solve problems and create public value, the question is, how the public sector institution can be successful when engaged in multiple (and often overlapping/competing) co-creation initiatives. In this article, we examine the theoretical terms of co-creation, meta-governance and portfolio management to analyse how portfolios of co-creation projects are best managed. We develop two propositions suggesting the link between different forms of portfolio management and co-creation and use the City of Espoo as an illustrative example of the value that can be derived from more adaptive approaches to portfolio management.